COVID vaccines for infants arrive in Florida, then are thrown away

Dozens of South Florida pharmacies, community health centers, children's hospitals and pediatricians received delivery last week of the first COVID-19 vaccines available for children as young as 6 months old — much earlier than anticipated after state officials missed a deadline for preordering the shots.

But pediatricians and public health advocates working to vaccinate newly eligible children under 5 said they are being forced to throw away the majority of the doses they have ordered because Gov. Ron DeSantis will not authorize state programs to administer the vaccines for infants and toddlers, effectively cutting off supply to many family doctors.

Pediatricians say they no longer can turn to their county health department to supply them with smaller amounts of the vaccine, which is what many doctors have been doing to procure the vaccine for older kids and adults, said Dr. Lisa Gwynn, a University of Miami pediatrician and president of the Florida Chapter of American Academy of Pediatrics.

“Our governor purposely — purposely — limited access to this vaccine for children under 5,” Gwynn said Friday on a phone call while driving to Homestead to administer vaccines to migrant workers and their children. On Monday, the UM pediatric mobile van that she oversees will begin offering COVID-19 vaccines to children under age 5.

Gwynn said Florida's county health departments have been involved in helping pediatricians and other doctors vaccinate children and adults. But by denying Florida's county health departments the authority to provide the vaccines to the newly eligible children, she said, the state has cut off access for some of its youngest and neediest children. “Now their hands are tied,” Gwynn said. “Local health departments will not be offering the vaccine (for newly eligible children), nor will they participate in the distribution to pediatricians and local family doctors.”

South Florida pediatricians say part of the challenge in vaccinating their young patients is that they also must contend with guidance from a state surgeon general who advises against vaccinating healthy children, contrary to recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and pediatric medical associations.